| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Fidessa | | Sonnet V. Arraigned, poor captive at the Bar I stand | | Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602) |
| | | ARRAIGNED, poor captive at the Bar I stand; | |
| The Bar of Beauty, bar to all my joys, | |
| And up I hold my ever trembling hand, | |
| Wishing, or life, or death to end annoys. | |
| And when the Judge doth question of the guilt, | 5 |
| And bids me speak: then, sorrow shuts up words! | |
| Yea, though he say, “Speak boldly, what thou wilt!” | |
| Yet my confused affects no speech affords. | |
| For why? Alas, my Passions have no bound! | |
| For fear of death that penetrates so near; | 10 |
| And still one grief another doth confound, | |
| Yet doth at length a way to speech appear. | |
| Then, for I speak too late, the Judge doth give | |
| His sentence, that “in prison, I shall live!” | | | | |
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